Around the South where I live there are three stadiums you should visit while you can. In Chattanooga, Engel Stadium was once home of the Lookouts and players such as Harmon Killebrew played there. I’ve never been to the DAP but I can imagine Engel was much like what you saw in the movie “Bull Durham”. Well, minus the bull and the warehouse in right field. My fondest memory is of the Lookouts having a live camel out in a centerfield pen and dragging him out before games one year in the nineties. I’m not sure why they did it, but it was a sight. My understanding is that several high school, men’s league and college games are still held there.
Luther Williams field in Macon is another field to enjoy. Chipper Jones once played for the Macon Braves down there as well as many, many others. I know a college summer league team plays there now.
Rickwood Stadium in Birmingham is another treat. Home of the Black Barons (as well as the other Barons for years), it has a great deal of history within it. It too is still open for several events including the Rickwood Classic, high school games and men’s league teams.
Why visit them? Baseball, as well as hockey, is is different from football and basketball in that players from 75 years ago can be compared to those of today. When a pitcher toes the rubber today he does it in much the say way as did Dizzy Dean or Sandy Koufax.
75 years ago, there was no NBA. And the basketball that was played was far different from the game played today. There were no rim rattling dunks, for example. Football was played by men with leather helmets.
Walking out on Engel Stadium, then, you can realistically imagine the game that was played when Babe Ruth made an appearance or Harmon Killebrew played there. Going to Rickwood Field, you can imagine Willie Mays playing for the Black Barons and roaming, what was then, a cavernous center field.
I know some of you can reference the Palestra in Philadelphia. I’ve been there. And loved it too. However, even that hallowed ground cannot hold a candle to Rickwood field in terms of the history and meaning. Race relations in America? Rickwood saw witness to that within its confines. All time greats? Willie Mays is but one example. Home to a part of the national pastime? It’s there.
Talk to long time Birmingham baseball fans and they will wax nostalgic for Rickwood. Macon residents come to Luther Williams to watch unknown college kids play so they can experience that field.
The Palestra is almost alone as an old time basketball palace people return to simply to watch basketball of any sort. The old Gardens of Boston and New York are gone. Nobody in San Francisco wants to watch a basketball game at the Cow Palace. And there aren’t three people, I’m sure, in New York who go to Yankee stadium simply to experience the ghosts of the New York football Giants. Mickey Mantle, I’m sure, has beaten those spirits off with a mighty baseball stick.
Tags: baseball, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Engel, Lookouts, Luther, Macon, Rickwood, Stadium, Williams
